


You Just Can't Trust

by Blink23



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Established Relationship, Gay Bashing, Ignoring season three for this, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 15:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19794130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blink23/pseuds/Blink23
Summary: “You’re a half hour late, princess,” Billy yells, stirring the pasta on the stove, “I put the chicken in the oven like you said, so it’s been done for awhile, but I turned it off left it in so it st-”The rest of his bitching is cut off when he sees Steve’s face covered in blood.





	You Just Can't Trust

The garage door bangs open at 7:45 and Billy rolls his eyes.

“You’re a half hour late, princess,” Billy yells, stirring the pasta on the stove, “I put the chicken in the oven like you said, so it’s been done for awhile, but I turned it off left it in so it st-”

The rest of his bitching is cut off when he sees Steve’s face covered in blood.

“What the fuck?”

“It’s not that bad,” he says, his voice muffled from the paper shoved up his nose, “I mean, it is a lot of blood, but it’s from my nose, and it bled like a son of a bitch before I found the napkins in my glove compartment, so it’s not that-”

“What the fuck,” Billy strides forward, his hands hovering over Steve’s face like he wants to hold him but is afraid to, “Why-”

He shakes his head, skittering around Billy to the kitchen sink and wetting a paper towel, “Some asshole thinking faggots deserve to get the shit kicked out of them. Just leave it, Billy.”

He begins to wipe down his face, clearing the blood away. It definitely looks worse than it is, which seems to be a bloody nose and some bruising, but it’s still awful.

Billy doesn’t get it. He doesn’t. 

Steve has never really stuck out as gay, or anything. He unironically likes George Michael and Duran Duran, but like… that’s typical top 40 shit. He dated girls, for fucks sake. A lot of them, so many that Billy has a hard time not getting twitchy when they run into an ex in town and she giggles over Steve being single as far as almost everyone in town is concerned and in control of his trust fund.

And they haven’t been careful - not really, not like they used to be when Billy would get a fist to the face for looking at a guy for too long, not since Billy packed all his shit two days after he turned eighteen and showed up in the Harrington’s driveway - but no one had really paid much attention to them, not enough that they would notice anything other than maybe thinking Billy was taking advantage of his friend’s hospitality. Steve was just a trust fund baby fucking around for a year before his father bought some university a library and he’s accepted despite his grades, and Billy was nothing but trailer trash with no future once he finished high school. They don’t know they’re just biding time until they can leave together, until the kids are a bit older and it’s not a bunch of fucking middle schoolers and Hop keeping another demension out.

The person that did this would have to know them.

"Don't make a big deal out of it, okay? It's fine.”

Billy hisses through his teeth.

“It's not - _Steven William_ -”

“Are you channeling my mom? really?”

“Your mom is an asshole who probably wouldn’t be able to recall your middle name, so no.”

Steve grimaces. “Ouch.”

“You know what I mean, stop dodging the subject.”

Steve tugs at his hair, “Baby-”

“You don’t get to say shit like that.”

“I’ve taken worse beatings. One of them from you, actually, so it’s not-”

“I sweat to god, Harrington, if you say ‘it’s not a big deal,’ I’ll fuckin’ pound your face in myself again.”

Steve just shakes his head, looking tired. 

“Who did this. Don’t make me fucking call Hopper.”

Steve sighs, then winces. 

“Your dad was-“

Billy goes cold at the thought.

“My dad beat you bloody?”

“Baby, it’s not your fault-”

“My dad fucking beat the shit out of you and it’s not my fault how?”

“He wanted to know where you were and I’m the one that refused to tell him, okay? You didn’t-”

“So it is actually my fault-“

“Jesus Christ Billy, how the fuck do you get that out of your dad deciding to be a dick? It was one punch, he just got me the right way to do the most damage. Stop.”

Billy snaps his mouth shut, turning back to the stove. He drains the pasta with his hands shaking, not wanting to ruin things by lashing out.

“What happened.”

“I’m not gonna get you to be quiet about this huh?”

“No.”

Steve groans. “Fine. Max and Lucas and Mike were downtown when I got off work, and asked for a ride. I took Mike and Lucas to Lucas’, then Max back home, and he comes fucking storming out. And dude, you know I trust your sister and her ability to take care of herself, but there’s no way I trust your dad-“

Billy's heart plummets. “He didn’t-“

“No,” Steve frowned, “God no. She’d be here if he did. But he looked so fucking pissed it made me get out of the car.

“He just came at me. Like fucking… I don’t know. Got into my face about you and where you were these last few months like he doesn’t already know, and then about me spending so much time with the kids - apparently being a faggot means I’m also a fucking pedophile - and I kinda… snapped on him.”

“You snapped on Neil?”

“Nothing bad! Just sort of… told him that I’m actually bisexual, and I get fucked just as much as I fuck you, and-“

Billy scrubs his face with his hands, “Jesus Christ, Steve. No wonder he lost his shit.”

“I mean, he was pissed, but I could tell he was holding back. I’m not his kid, and my dad is the type of person to have a lawyer on retainer, and I think he was aware. Then I told him I love you and that’s when he lost it.”

Billy groans and hangs his head. His boyfriend's a dumbass.

As absolutely stupid and wreckless it is that Steve told his dad explicitly that he loves him, something in him warms. He supposes, after all the shit he’s been dealt - everything from him beating Steve so bad the guilt still eats at him sometimes to his mom to people straight up dying in front of them - it’s a nice reminder that someone out there does give a shit when he really doesn’t have to.

He turns and laces his fingers through Steve’s hair, scratching his scalp a little like he knows he likes.

“I’ll finish up, okay? All I have to do is add the cheese so it can melt.”

Steve hums, and closes his eyes. He really doesn’t look that bad, now that the blood’s gone. He’ll definitely bruise, probably pretty badly, but nothing too terrible. When he ultimately tells people he walked into a door or got smacked with a ball or whatever lie he makes up, it’ll be believable. Not like when Billy got beatings from Neil and all he’d get was looked at with pity. 

"Go shower, baby," Billy kisses his forehead, "it'll make you feel better. Then we can have dinner."

Steve kisses him, hissing as his nose bumps Billy's, before heading for the stairs. Billy's left to finish up their dinner downstairs and let the anger build in his chest.

With his mom, it was scary. She was tiny and his dad so much bigger, and he genuinely thought he was going to kill her sometimes. With Steve, he knows that Neil won't lay a hand on him again, so all it does is make him furious.

For the first time in a long time, Billy wants blood.


End file.
